Bible Study Notes

STOP! It’s Distracting You!

Hi there! I haven’t posted anything on this blog for about 6 months now. I have been juggling work, study, ministry and personal life and I haven’t been doing very well at it but I am on my way! Also from the last post on this blog, it’s not hard to reason that I have also been having some emotional struggles these past months but am coming through! Amen!

Todays’ post is one that came to me almost as a command during my moments of worry, self doubt and doubt of God’s love. STOP! THIS IS DISTRACTING YOU!

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. – 2 Corinthians 12:9 [para]

When we hear about distractions on the Christian journey we hear about how social media, people, TV etc. are distracting us but today let me show you another major culprit. CARES/WORRY/ISSUES of this world! A lot of times the devil knows something is on the horizon, so he would send you a momentary worry point; a thorn in your flesh, an issue that refuses to be solved so you can spend your time worrying about it and also waste valuable prayer time on that subject. What he is doing is distracting you from the actual blessing!

For example, a woman is trusting God for the fruit of the womb and she has been praying, fasting, praising and doing all she knows to get the miracle. Then out of nowhere, a colleague picks fault with her and starts giving her all sorts of grief at work. It’s on her mind, it’s on her lips; she is thinking about it every time now, she is complaining about it, when she sits to pray she starts thinking about it and complaining about it to God instead of facing her faith project. This seeming issue is not an issue at all; it’s a smoke screen to distract her, to waste her time and if she continues to allow it, it could delay her miracle.

The Children of Israel were on their way to the promised land; they had seen the mighty works of God in bringing them out of Egypt (Genesis 8-11) They had worshipped God and sacrificed unto him (the Passover, Genesis 12) and they left Egypt with 1 purpose to get to the promised land and worship God there (Genesis 13:31)! On their way, the devil raised a curved ball; they started to crave the food (Exodus 16:3, 17:3) , convenience and seeming perfection of Egypt. Initially God answered them; he gave them manna, water from the rock and quail but this didn’t satisfy them because they didn’t get the message. It was all a distraction! They continued to murmur and complain to the point of rebelling against God and making a god for themselves (Exodus 32:4-9). At this point, it was done! God said he will do what they have been complaining (Num 14: 28) about and that generation never made it to the promised land!

This is a very good example of how distractions can eat so deep and distract us out of the will of God! The woman in my first example can get so carried away that she starts to plot evil also; she lies, cheats and even enlists the help of someone to help show the colleague not knowing it was all a hoax.

Let’s see biblical examples of people who overcame like we ought to do.

Nehemiah – Nehemiah is a book I absolutely love reading in the Bible because it shows how a nobody can do great things for a great God (maybe I would do a book review on it soon)

In Nehemiah 4; we see that Nehemiah and his building company had received threats from Sanballat and they were being ridiculed for their work! This ridicule happened twice but how did Nehemiah respond? He presented the ridicule and threats to God, made his request and dropped it there! He then rose up and moved on with the work he had at hand. He didn’t spend his time worrying or complaining about what Sanballat had said. He charged the people not to be afraid and he faced the work at hand! That should be our response!

From the above we can glean some steps to take in the face of distractions;

When an issue arises (especially during a faith project), ask for illumination from the Holy Ghost. Is this issue an issue or a distraction?

No matter the answer to the 1st question, take it up to God in prayer. Report the issue to him and ask for wisdom to deal with it.

Search the scriptures for similar events or instructions to handle it,

Then face your faith project! Don’t waste time complaining or confessing that issue.

Whenever it pops into your head, reject the thought by casting the care back to God and face your faith project!

On this journey, the onus is on us to make sure we are not sidelined by distractions that are set just to stop or delay us from destiny.

So I charge you to take another look at all those issues you are currently having…are they issues or distractions?

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